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| Photo credit: LUZ Photo Agency |
𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗢𝗔𝗟𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗘𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗩𝗘𝗦 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠?
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “The first album, in our opinion, was full of energy and radiated a bright beauty. The new album is more emotional, more intense, goes more in the direction of loneliness and hopelessness. It's like coming down after a euphoric high, a kind of first depression.”
𝗠𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗬 𝗔𝗟𝗦𝗢 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗...
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Yes, if the first album was about sex, then the second one is about the unpleasant consequences of it or a relationship in general. There were a lot of love songs on the first album and actually I wanted to write more about other things on the second album, but I had a lot of fucked-up-relationships in the meantime and I couldn't really get away from that thematically. So I had to put those impressions on paper somehow.”
𝗕𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧'𝗦 𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗔𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗟.
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Right. That also comes from the change in the line-up, Steve Hewitt left the band but then came back and with him we gained confidence in our songwriting. I suddenly dared to write more complex stuff, we gained more confidence in our technical abilities on our instruments and so we wanted to try more and more. We're pushing our limits more often now. With Steve in the band, the atmosphere within the group has become a bit more familiar and intimate again. Somehow it's like 'Placebo Mark II', a new chapter, a new era.”
𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗥𝗢𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗧 [𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗭𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗚] 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗪𝗢 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦? 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗕𝗨𝗧 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚.
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “We just couldn't make music together anymore because our relationship had sunk to a very general level. But Placebo is not a music purpose group, so Robert left the band. After that, we started looking for a new drummer, but we couldn't find one who fit that quickly. So I made Steve an offer he just couldn't refuse, so he left Breed and came back to us.”
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “He threatened to beat me up, and well, here I am.”
𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗩𝗘, 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗢𝗟𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗪𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗗 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚?
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “Yeah, after all, I've been back at it for two years, just after the first tour for our first album. We've been working on the new album for a long time, coming up with new ideas every now and then, experimenting and discarding a lot of things. But we also noticed during the first rehearsal sessions that we can communicate well with each other.”
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Yes, we are constantly pushing ourselves. We are already developing new ideas for the next album and rehearsing new songs. We can't stop writing at all.... at the moment. In addition, we have also had similar personal experiences in recent years. We noticed that more and more while working on the new album and so our style changed while writing and sharing our recent pasts.”
𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧?
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “No, actually there is no specific song. We had slower songs on the first album, but this time they go a notch deeper. It was a subconscious process, a kind of drive that you don't realize until it's done. Maybe it was because we disconnected from the outside world more than usual this time. We spent a lot more time outside of our usual environment, maybe that's how we discovered the afflictions that had been with us for years but that we hadn't worked on before.”
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| Photo credit: Adrian Green |
𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗔𝗟𝗦𝗢 𝗠𝗘𝗔𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗥 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗠𝗘𝗔𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗗𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗪𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚?
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Especially when you're touring, there are some very strange things going on. You encounter situations that no normal person would, you live in extremes that you wouldn't normally encounter. This is the first time we've experienced that on a larger scale, and it's been quite upsetting. During the tour we were already writing songs, "Brick Shithouse" was basically written during a sound check.”
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “You suddenly have more access to yourself, I certainly did. Even during the tour our expectations of our music and our approach changed. We went from a simple rock feel to the things that had been on our minds for years, and we wanted to bring more emotion to the stage.”
(Brian had played a new version of "Teenage Angst" at the beginning of the interview session, he refers to it in the following sentence).
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “That's the difference between "Teenage Angst" and the new version of the song, which has become very melancholic, which we transformed more and more to that during our tour. We want to explore the scope of our skills more and more and the tendency is towards melancholy. But we can say about ourselves today, when we go there, we really go in that direction, it's not playing around anymore, the emotions are real, we don't need to pretend to anything. When you see us on stage on our next tour, you really see us. That's Placebo.”
𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗠𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗬, 𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗜𝗡 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗦 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 “𝗠𝗬 𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗧 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗘” 𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗦 𝗠𝗘 𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗧 𝗣𝗙 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗦 𝗝𝗘𝗭𝗘𝗕𝗘𝗟.
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Really? I've never heard Gene Loves Jezebel.”
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗗𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗬 𝗜𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗩𝗢𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗜𝗦 𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗦 𝗝𝗘𝗭𝗘𝗕𝗘𝗟 '𝟵𝟯 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠.
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “On "My sweet prince" I think it's one hundred percent spot on. That's the perfect sad song.”
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Yeah, on that song it's hard to go any deeper, I mean basically what we want to do is look deeper inside ourselves and stir up more emotions.”
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “When you've spent a whole day working on a song like "My sweet prince" and then you listen to the finished song, it makes you so happy-sad that you want to jump out the window.”
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “You laugh, but he really wanted to. Well, at least he hinted at it after the two days it took us to write the song.”
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: (recreating the situation from that time) “Aaahh (sigh), and now I want to jump off the skyscraper.”
𝗝𝗨𝗠𝗣, 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢?
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “No like your sticker: Suicidal Tendencies.”
𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗚𝗨𝗬𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔 𝗟𝗢𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗢𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗠 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠. 𝗛𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗢𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗠 𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗠𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗜𝗖 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗦𝗧𝗬𝗟𝗘?
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Absolutely, but we found that every little stupid detail you'll have heard about a rock'n'roll life is actually true. And that was a big disappointment. Because not only are they true, they're even worse than what you hear.”
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “Too many hangovers and stuff.”
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “The rock and roll lifestyle can get you all down in the dumps and chase your soul into the blender, or better yet, the meat grinder. It's disillusioning to realize that it doesn't fulfill your desires, for example my desire to be able to make even more music, to be even more creative. On the contrary, it prevents you from being creative. And we as Placebo feel a fundamental need to make music. Without that, we would be pretty fucked-up people. But it hasn't affected our optimism in our abilities and potential. We lead a very schizophrenic life anyway, our job offers a lot of insecurities and also outrageousness, we also reflect that on "Without you I'm nothing”."
𝗜𝗧 𝗜𝗦 𝗦𝗔𝗜𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗕𝗢𝗪𝗜𝗘 𝗛𝗔𝗦 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗟𝗬.
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “He invited us to Madison Square Garden for his 50th birthday, we played there as an opener. And we toured with him a total of three times. Of course it helps you when a David Bowie invites you to join him on his tour and we were very happy to do that. We like him and he likes us. But that's also it: he likes us and our music, no, the music first, just and that's it. It's nice to have impressed such a great musician like David Bowie already with your debut album. It has filled us with pride, not without reason, but it had no influence on us as a band or on our next goals.”
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| Photo credit: David Tonge |
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Okay, next question. Seriously, Britpop is deader than dead, Blur and Oasis are American bands now and Placebo were never really a British band. That's why Steve left us the first time. But then he realized that we were right.”
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “And this great offer that I couldn't refuse...”
𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗝𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗘𝗬 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗙 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗕𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗬 𝗔𝗟𝗦𝗢 𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗬 𝗟𝗘𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗧. “𝗕𝗨𝗥𝗚𝗘𝗥 𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗘𝗡” 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗕𝗘 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗨𝗟𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗠𝗦 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗧, 𝗔 𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗬 𝗢𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 [𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗟𝗦𝗗𝗔𝗟'𝗦] 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗢𝗚𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥?
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “First of all, we just called the song "Burger Queen" because it attracts more attention that way as opposed to Burger King, so to speak. It just stands out more in terms of the title. But it's not an autobiographical lyric, if that's what you mean. The song is about fictional characters. Stefan and I grew up in Luxembourg, spent a lot of time there and we really like Luxembourg. Our memories of it are really good in nature, although there's never too much happening there. But we've always felt that one day we'd have to get out of there to live a different, better, more exciting life elsewhere than it would have been possible in Luxembourg. But the person the song is about, a very, very sad song by the way, is a person who feels incredibly lonely, who believes he is ultimately alone, alienated and disconnected from everything that surrounds him. The character is gay and does drugs, and that's bad enough without living in Luxembourg. But when all three come together, then mercy be to God, it's fucked. The song is about such a person who feels like a stranger in his surroundings and even in himself. But it's really just a story, has nothing to do with me.”
𝗦𝗢 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗟𝗨𝗫𝗘𝗠𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗚 𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬?
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Because I know what I'm talking about. I always want to be able to understand everything very well when I write about something. And I can relate to this person's situation because I know Luxembourg. Gay and drug addicted in Bombay, I have no idea about that, I couldn't write a song like that.”
𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔 𝗢𝗡𝗘-𝗛𝗜𝗧-𝗪𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥, 𝗔𝗟𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛 “𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗬 𝗕𝗢𝗬” 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗖𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗟𝗬 𝗔𝗡 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗠 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗕𝗦. 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗚𝗨𝗬𝗦 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧?
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Lucky, yeah we got really lucky with that. We had more success with the whole album than we ever dreamed of. Of course, people at our concerts expect us to play "Nancy Boy", but we're happy to do it because it's not the same pressure as if we had written a world hit that hit like a bomb. But I still have to say that the success of "Nancy Boy" has kept me a little bit from writing a song like that again. On the one hand, because I really didn't want to create a new "Nancy Boy" and we didn't want to repeat ourselves, but mostly because I wanted to challenge our audience anew, with new songs and a new style. Entertaining a live audience over and over again is the biggest challenge for me. "Nancy Boy" is just a kind of spot on Placebo in 1996, two years later should and must be refocused. In our band history, "Nancy Boy" should once be nothing more than hit no.1!”
𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗨𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗥𝗔𝗗𝗜𝗢𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗣𝗨𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗬 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗞?
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Not necessarily. We think "O.K. Computer" is nice, although it comes across too Pink Floyd-like to me at the end, but Radiohead are not a source of inspiration for us. Thom processes his mental lows and highs and we process ours. There may be unintentional parallels, but musically there are no similarities. My emotional power is also more introspective than Thom's. He always relates to the whole world, while I cannot. I don't even know myself inside out.”
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “There are other records that we've been listening to a lot more than Radiohead lately or in the last year, DJ Shadow for example, "High Noon" is a fantastic song.”
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| Photo credit: David Titlow |
𝗜'𝗩𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗩𝗘 𝗜𝗦 𝗔 𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗙 𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗖 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖, 𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦𝗡'𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗨𝗣 𝗔 𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗟𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗧 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠?
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “Definitely not. I like this kind of music but we want to make rock music. Still, I was really looking forward to working with Steve Osborne, who has worked with the Happy Mondays and U2 and does a lot of remixes for bands.”
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “Yeah, we wanted a producer who was more in contrast to us than purely on our wave. We know enough about rock music, in our opinion, so we needed a producer who knew something about technology. So with the help of the machines, which were foreign to us, we were able to fabricate a kind of eclectic mix that brought us the modern, forward looking sound that we wanted to have.”
𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗢𝗟𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗪𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚?
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “Steve [Osborne] is a tech geek, he just helped us find the right way to sound, but he wasn't involved in any creative part of the songwriting.”
📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “He got our demos and then he developed some kind of strategy how the songs could sound as much as possible according to our idea. That's why the new album is more complex on the sonic level, the first album sounded maybe more ambitious but also more superficial.”
𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗟𝗟, 𝗜 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗩𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗦.
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: “Exactly. We just use other people's music to distract us a little bit, but it doesn't play a role in our sound. To stay unique you can't steal someone else's sound or try to represent something that doesn't come from you. Everything has to come from within and that's what makes us so proud of "Without you I'm nothing”."
(Discover, September 1998, interviewer: Ralph Buchbender)
Post by Silke
